Former Ohio State student health director says 'I did the best I could' handling complaints about Strauss

Jennifer Smola The Columbus Dispatch @jennsmola

Monday

Sep 9, 2019 at 6:29 PMSep 10, 2019 at 5:53 AM

A former Ohio State University student health director has spoken publicly for the first time about his actions surrounding now-deceased Dr. Richard Strauss, who investigators concluded sexually abused dozens of former students during his 20-year medical tenure at the university.

Dr. Ted Grace was director of OSU's Student Health Services at the end of Strauss’ career there in the mid-1990s. Grace now is director of student health at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

Grace has drawn scrutiny for his handling of complaints about the late doctor and his lack of participation in the recent Perkins Coie investigation into Strauss, the results of which Ohio State released in May. Although Grace has not responded to repeated messages from The Dispatch, he told The Southern Illinoisan newspaper in a story published Sunday that Perkins Coie investigators misrepresented him in their report, and that he did “the best I could.”

“I felt like I had absolutely done what was right,” Grace told the daily newspaper in Carbondale. “Taking out a tenured faculty member, it was not easy.”

Get the news delivered to your inbox: Sign up for our morning, afternoon and evening newsletters

Grace knew of two fondling complaints against Strauss in January 1995, when Grace required that a chaperone accompany Strauss during exams, according to the Perkins Coie report. After learning of a third incident in January 1996, he placed Strauss on administrative leave, the report said.

Late last month, a working group convened by Gov. Mike DeWine determined that the State Medical Board had found credible evidence of abuse by Strauss but did nothing at the time to remove Strauss’ medical license or inform law enforcement.

Grace told The Southern Illinoisan that he shared evidence against Strauss with the State Medical Board, which failed to act on it.

But Grace did not initiate a complaint against Strauss to the medical board; it was Strauss, in fact, who made a complaint about Grace, according to the Perkins Coie report. The medical board's investigation into Strauss began only when a board investigator recognized the potential severity of Strauss’ improper conduct while investigating a separate complaint, according to the report by the governor’s working group. That report indicated the investigator had been looking into a complaint made by Strauss, but the report did not name Grace.

Grace stopped cooperating with Perkins Coie investigators early on, after Ohio State refused his request that the university pay his legal expenses. A group of former Ohio State students who are suing the university over its handling of Strauss’ abuse plan to depose Grace and five other non-cooperative witnesses as the parties work to mediate the case. Attorneys representing the students say the testimony of those non-cooperative witnesses is "essential to a fuller understanding of OSU's culpability" in Strauss' abuse.

Grace, however, told The Southern Illinoisan that he is one of only a few administrators who took action.

“It’s clear there were complaints before I got there,” Grace told the newspaper. “I don't think they even bothered to put any of it in writing. I was documenting every detail, which now can be scrutinized to say I did something wrong. But I'm the only one who did anything at all.”

Former Ohio State student Steve Snyder-Hill, who has publicly identified himself as "Student B" in the Perkins Coie report, complained to student health in January 1995 after Strauss sexually assaulted him during an appointment at student health services, the Perkins Coie report said. Snyder-Hill said Grace’s explanations are inconsistent with what happened, including that Grace told Snyder-Hill at the time that student health had never received a complaint against Strauss. In fact, one had been received a few weeks earlier.

Grace told The Southern Illinoisan that the earlier complaint had been handled by one of his subordinates, and he did not know about it when he told Snyder-Hill there had been no previous complaints.

After Grace placed Strauss on administrative leave a year later, the university began a limited investigation into Strauss, and by August 1996, the university ended Strauss’ appointments with student health services and the athletics department.

Snyder-Hill acknowledges that Grace oversaw Strauss for just a small part of the doctor’s 20-year tenure, and that other officials failed to act even earlier. But he still feels that Grace didn't do as much as he could have, and took action only when he had to.

Grace "did what he had to do (with Strauss) at the point where he was at," Snyder-Hill said. "He can’t say he was being proactive in any way."

jsmola@dispatch.com

@jennsmola

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.